London Buses route 33

London Buses route 33 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Fulwell bus garage and Hammersmith bus station, it is operated by London United.

History

Route 33 began as a Richmond to Aldwych service, operated by Mortlake and Twickenham garages, except on Sundays when the route was extended to Old Ford and operation shared between Clay Hall (Old Ford) and Middle Row (Kensington). There were also extensions at Summer weekends to Hampton Court. However, the section east of Hammersmith largely duplicated routes 9 and 73, so from March 1937 the route was cut back to terminate at Brook Green, Hammersmith. It was extended from Richmond to Hounslow via Twickenham and Whitton, replacing route 27, and Hounslow garage became the main operator.

In September 1982, the section of route between Twickenham and Hounslow was removed. Route 27 had been withdrawn from this section and diverted to run to Teddington; now the 33 was changed to run via Strawberry Hill to Teddington, with a projection to Fulwell bus garage.

A weight limit of 7.5 tonnes on Hammersmith Bridge forced the route to be converted to single-deck operation using Dennis Darts, and during the closure of the bridge to other traffic a 10-minute frequency service was run. The service was later increased in frequency between Richmond and Hammersmith, but services to Fulwell were reduced. The full 7-8 minute service was extended to operate over the whole route, with partially parallel route 290 withdrawn between Twickenham and Richmond on 30 June 2001.

Upon being re-tendered, on 12 November 2005 the route passed to NCP Challenger with new Dennis Dart SLFs.^[1] At the same time the route was truncated at the Fulwell end to terminate on Stanley Road, Teddington. Previously it ran on round the corner to terminate on the forecourt of Fulwell Garage, but the new operator required a different terminus.

Route 33 was included in the 16 November 2009 of NSL Buses to Transdev London. On 30 January 2010, route 33 gained a half hourly night service replacing part of the withdrawn route N10. On 13 November 2010, Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts was introduced.

Current route

NCP Challenger Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart

• Fulwell bus garage for Fulwell station
• Teddington
• Strawberry Hill
• Twickenham
• King Street for Twickenham station
• Marble Hill Park
• St Margarets
• Richmond Bridge
• Richmond
• East Sheen
• Barnes Common
• Barnes station
• Castelnau
• Hammersmith Bridge
• Hammersmith bus station

References

External links

• Media related to London Buses route 33 at Wikimedia Commons
• London Bus Routes gallery
• Timetable